Certification Advice and Tools that Develop Real Cisco® Skills
 
Saturday, May 18, 2013

It’s a choice everyone has to make. 

It is possible to pass Cisco certification exams without ever labbing with Cisco routers and switches - but it's really difficult that way. How? You can read. Read every book with sample configs and show commands. Practice building configs on paper. Watch videos that show the CLI in use. Search the Internet for postings of config and show commands on the Internet. And you can pass – but boy, is it hard to do it that way!
 
To pass, most people need to practice hands-on skills using the Cisco Command Line Interface (CLI). That practice makes you better prepared for the test, better prepared for real jobs, and you actually learn the commands and their meanings much more quickly.
 
However, the choice of how to get that CLI practice is not so obvious. The choice can be broken down into three major parts:
 
  1. What to use:  Should I use Simulators, Emulators, or buy used gear, and why? 
  2. When to use:  When in my Cisco Cert Journey (CCENT, CCNA, CCNA Concentrations, CCxP…) does each option make the most sense? 
  3. How to use:  Once I choose one of these options, how do I make it happen?
  
This part of the site helps with these questions.

Labs, Labs, and More Labs
 

250 lab exercises across the complete breadth CCENT and CCNA topics – labs that not only have you configure, but ask probing questions, teaching specific points that help you be ready to pass the ICND1, ICND2, and CCNA exams. That’s what you get with the CCNA 640-802 Network Simulator, and it’s one of the main reasons we think it’s the best option for Hands-on skills for those new to Cisco networking.

 

learn more ...

 

When Should You Get Real?

 

Real routers, real switches, at your place, totally in your control. You dream of the perfect Cisco cert lab sitting there, making noise, but working exactly like they should. But that takes $$$, some time to research – and you’ve barely started with CCENT studies. Click below to learn more to see a timeline that might help you choose when to to take the plunge into real gear.

 

What’s Up with this Dynamips Thing?
 

Imagine a small lab topology of Cisco routers, running actual Cisco IOS software. Now imagine that same topology virtualized, running as software on your PC. For free. What's the catch? Find out more by clicking below, or look to the Dynamips page of this site to get started. 

 
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